Drown
by SilverHeart09
Summary: It was meant as a harmless joke, but obviously Clint didn't get the memo. Good thing Pepper's on hand to save the day. One-shot, Pepperony, Tony!Whump.


_Not sure what part of my mind this came from, but I wanted a go at writing a story like this so here you go, quick one-shot._

_Please review!_

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It was meant as a harmless prank, except that it escalated quickly and now he was just confused and Pepper was glaring daggers at him that felt like they were actually piercing his skin.

They'd been relaxing in the pool after a particularly painful mission involving giant mutant lizards. Clint and Natasha were doing a few lengths and Steve was practising his diving, being scored by Bruce. Tony was on the side of the pool, stretched out in a deck chair and dozing, Thor was in the water kicking back lazily and gazing up at the sky.

Clint got bored of doing lengths and decided it would be a fun joke to push Tony into the water. Sounds good right? It was just a joke, and after a few choice words and death threats, Clint was confident that Tony would laugh and maybe he could convince everyone to have a game of water polo, it would be great fun.

Except that's not what happened.

Clint had climbed out the pool and walked over to Stark, and before Natasha could see what he was doing and yell a warning, he'd pushed the snoozing billionaire into the water with a mighty splash.

Steve and Bruce had rolled their eyes, but Natasha looked plain terrified, which scared Clint more than anything else in the world. Natasha was _never _terrified.

'It's just a joke, Tasha,' Clint said. 'He can swim, right?'

'Get him out, get him out now!' Natasha yelled at him. 'JARVIS get Pepper out here!'

'_Already done, Agent Romanoff.'_

Clint looked down into the water where he'd pushed Tony, and realised he wasn't coming up for air.

'Oh shit,' he swore, and dived into the water.

_Cold, so cold, and wet. Water soaked through his clothes and made him freeze. There wasn't any air in his lungs and he couldn't breathe, his chest was burning, his head hurt and the Arc in his chest ached. He could feel his heart beating irregularly and black spots were dancing in front of his eyes. He was so cold, so tired, he tried to be strong but everything hurt._

_Pepper._

_Come save me?_

Clint and Steve managed to pull the kicking and thrashing billionaire out of the pool and up onto the side, where he immediately scooted away from all of them and crouched by the wall, dripping wet, eyes wide and frightened, watching all of them with an almost hunted look in his eyes.

'Tony?' Steve said slowly, frowning. 'You okay?'

Tony said nothing; his frightened eyes flickered side to side in their sockets, one hand clutching protectively at the Arc.

'What's going on?' Pepper said, rushing out to the pool side. The second she saw Tony huddled dripping wet by the wall she realised what had happened. When he saw her, Tony's eyes lost their frightened animal look and he collapsed on the side, gasping for air.

'Get inside, I'll talk to him,' Pepper told the Avengers, not taking her eyes off Tony, her tone implying _right this fucking second._

They did what they were told immediately, when it came to Tony's safety they'd learnt not to mess with Pepper, who loved him completely and worried about him constantly.

'Oh Tony,' Pepper said softly once they'd gone inside. 'Come here.'

Tony crawled into her waiting arms and grabbed her shirt, burying his head in her chest and crying silently.

'Sssh baby it's okay,' Pepper said, hugging him tightly as the water from his body seeped into her clothes. 'I've got you, you're safe.'

They stayed like that for a few minutes, cuddled up by the pool while the sun dried the water from their bodies and Tony gradually calmed down and clutched at his warm, safe, amazing girlfriend. She knew how to take care of him, she always had done, and he loved her for it.

'Please, don't ever leave, I won't know how to cope,' Tony said, closing his eyes and inhaling the mango scent of her body wash.

'Oh Tony,' Pepper said, kissing his forehead. 'I would never leave you.'

She pushed him slightly away from his body so she could reach his face and kissed him softly, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling her to him.

Tony clutched at her waist and deepened the kiss, one hand going to tangle itself in her hair.

'You complete me,' he said when they broke away and he rested his forehead against hers.

Pepper pressed another light kiss to his lips and helped him to his feet, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around him. 'It's not Clint's fault,' she said quietly. 'He didn't know, you can't blame him.'

'I know,' Tony said, and promptly kissed her again, deciding he hadn't had enough and wanted more.

The two of them crept through the penthouse the back way so they wouldn't come into contact with the Avengers, and Tony had a long hot shower, scrubbing the memories away from his mind.

After changing into his ratty shop jeans and his warm MIT sweatshirt, Tony made his way back downstairs into the living area, Pepper at his side, where the five Avengers were sat looking terrified on the sofa, with the exception of Natasha, who looked guilty.

'I'm sorry, I should have been quicker,' she said, looking at him as he walked into the room.

'Not your fault, Natasha,' Tony said, using her full name, something he rarely did.

'Tony…' Clint began.

'Don't,' Tony said. 'Just listen.'

He sat on the sofa next to them, Pepper sitting beside him and taking his hand reassuringly.

'When I was kidnapped,' Tony began. 'I was asked to build the Jericho missile that I went out to demonstrate, except I refused so to try and convince me, I got water-boarded.'

Steve, Bruce and Clint paled considerably, and Pepper squeezed his hand, knowing how much he hated talking about it.

'What is that?' Thor asked, having never heard the term before.

'I got my head shoved in a bucket of water until I ran out of air,' Tony explained. 'They successfully managed to drown me twice but each time they brought me back so they could do it again.'

'That is truly terrible,' Thor said sincerely. 'No man deserves that fate.'

'Anyway,' Tony finished. 'Now… I can't be under water. At all. The shower is my limit.'

'I'm so sorry, Tony,' Clint said desperately. 'Really I am.'

'It's okay, Clint,' Tony said. 'You didn't know.'

There was silence for a moment, which Steve broke by saying. 'Thank you, Tony, for telling us the truth. This must have been difficult for you, but we need to know, if something like this happens again, what do we do?'

Tony lifted up his and Pepper's conjoined hands. 'Pepper,' he said. 'Call Pepper, get Pepper, just think Pepper.'

'When in doubt, _always _Pepper,' Natasha told them.

Pepper smiled and kissed him softly.

'Now I call a film and pizza night,' Natasha said, stretching out her aching legs. 'We still haven't seen _Men in Black III _yet.'

'What is it with you and _Men in Black_?' Tony asked, eyebrow raised, one arm looped lazily around Pepper's waist.

'Will Smith,' was Natasha's answer to that, no-one questioned her.

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_I am determined that everyone on FF writes Natasha as a Men in Black fan, there are already a few people around doing it. Come on guys! Do it for Will Smith!_

_Review and you will have cupcakes of loveliness :)_


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